Absolutely Not The Daily Troll-o-Graph

Labour MPs criticise charity watchdog’s ‘inadequate’ response to Tehran’s ‘influence network’ Daily Telegraph 28/02/26 Sir Keir Starmer has been urged to clamp down on charities accused of operating as part of an Iranian influence “network” in Britain. A group of Labour MPs have warned of a web of organisations that “appear to be actively promoting the Iranian regime’s ideology and interests”. In a letter to Dan Jarvis, the security minister, the MPs argued that proscribing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was an “important step” in limiting the regime’s ability to repress and kill protesters in Iran. They went on to list several charities, which they alleged are part of the Iranian regime’s “influence on our shores”, arguing that the response of the sector watchdog, the Charity Commission, had been “inadequate”. Labour MPs have urged the Government to proscribe the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Credit: Morteza Nikoubazl/Getty One charity cited is the Islamic Hu...

Telegraph politics 27/02/26 Keir Starmer gambled – and lost. Gorton and Denton, where the Green Party stormed to victory, may turn out to be shorthand for his ultimate demise. The question for Labour’s so-called soft-Left – sometimes considered by its own members to be “incapable of organising its way out of a paper bag” – is whether they can achieve their aims under Starmer’s leadership, or whether they conclude that they need one of their own in Number 10. There’s no two ways about it, this by-election was a disaster for Keir Starmer. “There can no longer be any doubt that he is doomed to be a one-term Prime Minister,” said former Labour MP Tom Harris this morning. On the strength of this result, he’ll be lucky to be the half-term PM. Every major decision in the run-up to the Gorton and Denton poll rests squarely with Starmer. The Burnham block backfired spectacularly – Manchester’s mayor has so far been conspicuously quiet following the result. Labour poured so much energy int...

Green Party wins Gorton and Denton seat after bitter contest, while Reform UK comes second Daily Telegraph 27/02/26 Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership has been plunged into further crisis after the Green Party swept to victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election. Labour was defending a commanding 13,413 majority in what should have been an easy defence in one of its safest seats. But in a tight three-way race between Labour, Reform and the Greens, Hannah Spencer secured a comfortable victory with 14,980 votes, a majority of 4,402. Ms Spencer, a Manchester plumber, becomes the Green Party’s fifth MP. On a disastrous night for Sir Keir’s party, Labour candidate Angeliki Stogia was beaten into third place by Reform. Matthew Goodwin, Reform’s candidate, won 10,578 votes, while Ms Stogia won 9,364 votes, 25.4 per cent of the vote, down from 50.8 per cent at the 2024 general election. The result shows how Labour has haemorrhaged votes to both the populist Left and Right since its landsli...

Too much immigration allied with growing Left-wing extremism has become a toxic mix Daily Telegraph 25/02/26 Our democracy is dying in plain sight, and we don’t have the right to stay silent. The sectarian horror of the Gorton and Denton by-election cannot be the future of British politics. We must not become a country where our race or religion determines how we vote, where segregated communities live parallel lives and despise each other, where our liberal elites, out of cowardice or suicidal empathy, pretend not to notice. We cannot sleepwalk into becoming a Lebanon-on-Thames. This is an emergency, a last warning, and we must act now. We should start by calling out the Greens for what they have become: a hateful, despicable, extremist party that has identified an entrepreneurial opportunity in weaponising tribalism, division, stagnant living standards, misinformation and envy. Their behaviour in Gorton and Denton has been abominable. Following a playbook pioneered by far-Left ...

Cabinet minister claims Zack Polanksi’s party is ‘whipping up hatred’ in run-up to Gorton and Denton by-election Daily Telegraph 25/02/26 Labour has accused the Green Party of “manipulating” Muslim voters and stirring up hatred on the eve of the Gorton and Denton by-election. Senior Labour figures rebuked Zack Polanski’s party over campaign materials written in Urdu that tell Muslims to “punish Labour for Gaza”. The ballot in Gorton and Denton is set to take place on Thursday, and new polling suggests there could be a single percentage point between Labour, the Greens and Reform UK. Just under 40 per cent of Gorton’s population is Muslim, making it fertile ground for the Greens, while the white working class is dominant in Denton, meaning the area has more potential for Reform. Green Party campaign leaflets in both English and Urdu, the national language of Pakistan, feature a picture of Hannah Spencer, the party’s candidate, wearing a keffiyeh – a scarf associated with Palestin...

Reform UK will create an "Ice-style" agency as the party's shadow Home Secretary Zia Yusuf is set to announce plans to deport nearly 300,000 people a year. Mr Yusuf is set to announce plans to create a new agency, the UK Deportation Command, with the capacity to detain 24,000 migrants at a time and deport up to 288,000 annually on five flights a day. Experts have previously said the costs of such an expansion would be massive, as of April 2024 there were approximately 2,500 detention spaces. Mr Yusuf will tell a press conference later today: "For decades, the Tories and Labour have turned the other way while the very fabric of our society has been under assault. "The social contract has not merely been broken; it’s been shattered. Under a Reform government, His Majesty’s parliament will be sovereign once again. "We will secure our borders, leave the ECHR, and deport those here illegally. My message to the British people is simple: I will secure our b...

Keir Starmer has been accused of planning to sack Wes Streeting over alleged plotting to seize the Labour leadership from under him. The Prime Minister is said to be eyeing a reshuffle that would demote the Health Secretary and return Angela Rayner to the fold, despite claims she too had designs on No10. "We're hearing he wants to show strength and get shot of Wes,” a Labour source has suggested. Both Mr Streeting and Ms Rayner have routinely rejected any suggestions that they were seeking to supplant Sir Keir, yet speculation has remained rampant ahead of the upcoming Gorton & Denton by-election, which is being held on February 26. This reached fever pitch earlier this month, when the Prime Minister narrowly clung onto power amid intense renewed scrutiny over his appointment of Peter Mandelson as US ambassador. The crisis saw Cabinet ministers lining up to profess their loyalty and Sir Keir engage in crunch talks with Labour MPs to preserve his premiership. Party in...

Tories plot to 'hammer nail in coffin' of Chagos deal within hours as crunch Washington meeting could prove fatal for Keir Starmer's 'surrender' pact Sir Keir Starmer’s £35billion Chagos deal faces a “relentless” challenge after a top Tory told GB News she intends to put the “nail in the coffin” of the Prime Minister’s handover of the Indian Ocean archipelago. Shadow Foreign Secretary Dame Priti Patel is jetting off to Washington tomorrow to meet with senior officials in Donald Trump’s administration. Dame Priti’s trip comes after concerted efforts by Tory veteran Sir Iain Duncan Smith and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage to encourage the White House to move against the Prime Minister’s deal. The Witham MP, who is also scheduled to discuss the significance of the special relationship at the Hudson Institute next Wednesday, made clear to GB News that she will “keep fighting against the deal until it is scrapped once and for all”. Speaking to The People’s Channel ...

Starmer’s obsession with international law has reduced Britain’s utility as an ally Daily Telegraph 19/02/26 Starmer is now in a real bind over the Chagos Islands Credit: Reuters In blocking US forces from using RAF airbases to bomb Iran, Sir Keir Starmer has surpassed himself. The Government is reportedly concerned that facilitating strikes could be a breach of international law. As a result, it has diminished the ability of the United States to conduct combat operations, reduced Britain’s utility as an ally and demolished Sir Keir’s flagship Chagos policy. It is an outstanding illustration of the legalistic, process-driven approach of the Prime Minister. One of the earliest actions in office of Sir Keir, and his Attorney General Richard Hermer, was the revision of Britain’s attitude to international law. The result has been paralysis, with the state effectively unable to act within the constraints it has imposed upon itself. From Sir Keir’s decision on the use of RAF bases, it...

The plot to topple the next Right-wing government has already begun Daily Telegraph 18/02/26 Britain is not merely broken: it has been hacked to pieces by a nihilistic ruling class committed to dismembering our society. The methodical ruthlessness of the Left-wing barbarians responsible, the relentlessness of their vandalism, the thoroughness of their infiltration of our institutions is such that it will take at least a decade for a future Right-wing Government to rebuild the UK, as well as extraordinary competence, planning and strategic nous. The odds are stacked against such a project, but it is our only hope. Any potential Right-wing government, Reform, born-again Tory, or a combination thereof, must grasp the scale of the task ahead. The original sin was the ousting of Margaret Thatcher by Europhile Conservative wets in 1990, after which the elites blundered relentlessly. Almost every important decision of the past 36 years, by Labour, Tories and coalition Lib Dems alike – ...

Only weeks after defecting, former Tory beats party stalwarts Richard Tice and Zia Yusuf to top post Daily Telegraph 17/02/26 Robert Jenrick is to be unveiled as Reform UK’s shadow chancellor just over a month after defecting from the Conservatives. The former Tory cabinet minister has beaten former Reform leader Richard Tice and head of policy Zia Yusuf to the job despite having only been in the party for weeks. Mr Yusuf will be instead named as Reform’s shadow home secretary and Mr Tice will be given a new brief merging the business, energy and industry portfolios. The party will also unveil a new foreign affairs spokesman. The appointment, first revealed by The Telegraph, will be seen as an attempt by Nigel Farage to boost his party’s economic credibility. Reform UK has been ahead in the opinion polls since May but voters still see the Conservatives as more trustworthy on the economy. Mr Farage will use a press conference on Tuesday to try and persuade voters he shows he has...

The move follows The Telegraph’s campaign against Labour’s attack on democracy Daily Telegraph 16/02/26 Having spent weeks defending its decision to cancel elections to around 30 local councils in England, the Government has unexpectedly abandoned the idea in the latest U-turn staged by No 10. This newspaper has campaigned from the outset against what was by any measure an attack on democracy. Lawyers acting for Reform UK were proposing to argue that the Government was misusing powers under the Local Government Act 2000 that were never intended to allow the postponement of elections other than in exceptional circumstances. Labour had claimed that the looming reorganisation of local authorities would make elections expensive, complicated and unnecessary. Steve Reed, the Local Government Secretary, had already told MPs that he was tabling powers under the Act and was still defending his decision last week. But, in a letter published yesterday, he said that he was withdrawing his de...

Reform UK launches legal challenge to Starmer’s decision to deny 4.6 million people the vote Daily Telegraph 15/02/26 Sir Keir Starmer’s decision to cancel local elections is an abuse of power that threatens the foundations of British democracy, the High Court will hear. In a legal challenge to the decision to cancel some of May’s elections, lawyers acting for Reform UK will argue that Labour acted out of political interest to deny 4.6 million people the right to vote. In court documents seen by The Telegraph, they claim it is “patently irrational” to postpone elections in peacetime and that it “stands in contradiction to the basis of the country, namely democratic rights and the basis of individual rights”. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, is expected to appear at the High Court for both days of the hearing next Thursday and Friday. Writing for The Telegraph on Saturday, Mr Farage accuses Sir Keir Starmer of “running scared” from voters who are being denied a chance to sen...

PM to deliver speech in Munich calling for UK to work more closely with EU on defence Daily Telegraph 14/02/26 Sir Keir Starmer will claim the UK is no longer “the Britain of the Brexit years” when he addresses world leaders in Munich. The Prime Minister will argue that Britain should work more closely with the EU on defence, and will urge Europe to end its over-dependence on the United States. In a speech at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Sir Keir will claim that turning inwards would amount to a “surrender” of control during an era of heightened international instability. “We are not the Britain of the Brexit years anymore,” he will say. “Because we know that, in dangerous times, we would not take control by turning inward – we would surrender it. And I won’t let that happen. “There is nThe Chancellor’s comments represented a significant shift in tone. In January, she said Britain could not “go back in time” in its relationship with the EU. Europe ‘must reduce d...

The Palestine Action ruling means it is no longer politicians taking the ultimate decisions on national security; it is the judiciary Daily Telegraph 13/02/26 We live in a democracy under the rule of law, so the High Court’s ruling on the prescription of Palestine Action (PA) must be respected. Be clear, however, about what it means: it is another example of how it is no longer politicians, elected by and answerable to voters, who take the ultimate decisions on national security and protection of the public from terror. It is the judiciary. When the High Court rules, as it did today, that “the proscription of Palestine Action was disproportionate” and that “a very small number of Palestine Action’s activities amounted to acts of terrorism within the definition of section 1 of the 2000 Act”, it is imposing its will and its view of the threat posed by a group and individuals over that of ministers and Parliament. Legitimately so, of course, since that is the nature of judicial revi...

Time was when political scandals rocked nations and altered history. Watergate wasn’t just a bad headline or a name-calling spat, it was burglary, taped conversations, perjury and congressional hearings. Profumo had a serious breach of national security and a romantic affair to boot. Now, though, we have 21st-century scandal-lite: confected outrage for clicks, trivial infractions inflated into “crises” by opportunistic politicians who still think they’re in the student union. At Prime Minister’s Questions this week, Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch traded blows that most people wouldn’t notice, much less care about. Two-Tier (or Still-Here as he’s reminding us) declared that Robert Jenrick should have been sacked for saying there were no white faces in parts of Birmingham. This was a statement of demographic fact, not some racial slur, as the perpetually incandescent This is no Watergate Daily Telegraph 11/02/26 Left claims. Anyone who has walked through certain districts of our majo...

The destructive fools of Westminster are needlessly pushing Britain towards a gilts and sterling crisis Daily Telegraph 10/02/26 Britain is acquiring a bad reputation for hounding its leaders out of power in rapid succession and in petulant fashion, lurching from one set of policies to another with no economic or political compass. What I notice in my job covering the world economy is a creeping change in tone. A narrative is taking hold that this country is degenerating into an intractable and feral condition, prone to going down every rabbit hole of the culture war and lacking the discipline to see anything through. This is a dangerous reputation to have for a country that is running a large structural trade deficit, needs constant inflows of foreign capital, and has still not expunged the stain of the Liz Truss episode. Bond markets have become acutely sensitive to any sign of fiscal slippage anywhere on the planet. They will punish states that stray – even America, with the ex...

Sir Keir Starmer has clung on to his premiership after his whole Cabinet were strong-armed into backing his leadership. Daily Telegraph 09/02/26 Every member of Sir Keir’s top team publicly voiced their support within just over an hour of Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, calling for Sir Keir to resign. Ministers were ordered by Downing Street to tweet their support for Sir Keir in an attempt to quell the Labour rebellion, The Telegraph understands. Special advisers in No 10, who are directly appointed by the Prime Minister, called ministers this afternoon to ask them to tweet their support. Cabinet members were the first to tweet their support, at the same time as Mr Sarwar was delivering a speech calling for Sir Keir’s departure. Posts endorsing the Prime Minister from more junior ministers and backbenchers came later. Sir Keir will attempt to shore up his premiership when he faces his backbenchers at a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party tonight. Mr Sarwar has...

Breaking news......... Morgan McSweeney has resigned as Sir Keir Starmer’s chief of staff in the wake of the Mandelson scandal. The Prime Minister’s right-hand man quit after a backlash to him pushing for Lord Mandelson to be appointed ambassador to the US. Mr McSweeney insisted Lord Mandelson was the best man for the job in Washington despite being warned twice by civil servants about the peer’s ties to Jeffrey Epstein. The resignation will be seen as a final chance for Sir Keir to reverse his political fortunes after more than a year and a half of his political authority draining away. Lord Mandelson was appointed despite Downing Street knowing about his ongoing friendship with the paedophile even after Epstein was convicted of child sex crimes. Fresh revelations about the connections between the two men have plunged Sir Keir into the worst crisis of his premiership. Mutinous Labour MPs had threatened to back a leadership challenge against the Prime Minister if he refused to g...